There’s a place down the road delivers chopped, kiln-dried hardwood for £73/ton

Don’t plan on saving money by fitting this thing. The only time that works out is if you have “free” wood, and that usually entails a lot of time/effort/tool-use on your part.

FWIW:

When we moved in, our whole house was running off an 18kw wood fired range + 9 rads, with a simple thermostat driven pump. The stove was crap on wood (no way did we get 18kw from it) but ok on smokeless and ran quite well on anthracite. Fairly uncontrollable though, slow to respond, and always a cold house in the morning. Now replaced with something from the 1960’s – TRG coal boiler which is mostly automatic (10 minute daily loading/de-ashing routine).

We’ve also got a 7kw multi fuel in the lounge which heated a 8m x 3.5 lounge, which is open to upstairs. It is oversized. We’d be far better off with something half the size. If we run it full blast the lounge gets to the far side of 30oC in short order.

I doubt I would ever consider a manual stove for a whole house. One in the lounge for weekends and evenings, yes, but for regular radiators type whole house heating, something automatic wins every time.

Incidentally, I’d never get a woodburner per se – I’d get a multifuel burner instead, it gives the option of running on smokeless which is about a million times less faff to deal with.

You got me thinking….

BTW if you’re thinking of joining up a boiler stove with your CH, add a few £k to your install cost.

brickwizard – Member

Hey duckman wher do you get the 916 liners from at £20 per m??

Sorry,that should have been 904/316 liner. I got it from gr8 fires. My mate had a sample of the cheap stuff and I was able to cut it with a stanley knife. Having fitted the liner I would have gone for the cheap stuff as it was such a doddle to fit the liner I wouldn’t be that bothered to do it again…And put a fancier chimmney in.

Incidentally, I’d never get a woodburner per se – I’d get a multifuel burner instead, it gives the option of running on smokeless which is about a million times less faff to deal with.

I thought that, but we’ve never burnt coal in ours and just use wood…

I thought that, but we’ve never burnt coal in ours and just use wood..

If the stove is an expensive lifestyle accessory to supplement a mains gas CH system, then by all means wood only, who cares, just buy a bag or two of kiln dried.

If it is a main source of heating, then having the option of burning smokeless is essential.

If it is a main source of heating, then having the option of burning smokeless is essential.

It might be preferable, hardly essential.

No reason why you can’t use wood, you can just phone up and have 6 cubic metres delivered on your doorstep the next day…..

Im a big stove fan and use mine more than most but i wouldnt trade my oil boiler for the mornings …..

Regardless of how hot we had the house the night before its still cool in the morning in winter – can be -10 outside and 13 inside at 5 am. – i do not subscribe to the practice of slumbering the stove over night though.

But if your in the balmy southeast this might not be an issue .

I went for a multifuel stove as smokeless is easier for me to get hold of than seasoned wood (and cheaper). At this time of year is impossible to buy seasoned wood as all the local suppliers have sold out. More coal will be delivered the next day.
Half a bucket of homefire ovals smokeless in my fire lit at 6pm will still be glowing the following morning and is often still going by the time I get home the next evening as well. If you are burning logs then you need to keep an eye on it and stick more wood on before it dies down too much. One advantage of burning wood though is that you only need to clean the thing out once a week instead of every day.

It might be preferable, hardly essential.

I’d disagree. Slumbering wood is bad news, so overnight burns are out. Ordering wood for next day delivery – not in bulk for sensible money round our way. And not at all if the suppliers have run out (as they did round my way when we moved in).

IME anthracite or smokeless is always available.

YMMV of course.

Slumberring coal is bad news too .

It might be preferable, hardly essential.

I’d disagree. Slumbering wood is bad news, so overnight burns are out. [/quote]

You do know that overnight burns are not essential (which appears to be your logic), you won’t die if you let the fire go out and relight the next day…..

which appears to be your logic

Well, it’s your interpretation of it. It’s not all of what I said though.

Slumberring coal is bad news too .

If you’re talking about bit coal I’d agree, OTOH anthracite (almost) doesn’t tar, and manufactured smokeless is almost as good (although some isn’t).

Besides a decent coal burn isn’t really slumbering, it’s just running at a low burn rate for a long time. It’s a world apart from the tarry impurities given off from a smoldering log.

The Flying Ox – Member

Right, so a bit of exploratory demolition has me slightly confused. Despite the house being built of sandstone, the internal wall in which the fireplace sits looks to be entirely brick and with no lintel in sight. The current fireplace cavity only goes back about 12″ as well. Would a house built in the early 1800s normally have stone exterior walls and brick walls inside, or am I going to have to remove the bricks to see what’s behind?

Mine is Gritstone out and brick in, normal for 1800’s Depending where you live depends what ws in there, rmember it may well have been used for cooking and heating as there was no gas and leccy then !!
Ours had a Yorkshire range in originally and over the years had 2 fireplaces built on iside the other. So went fromm this

to the picture in previous post

There’s a place down the road delivers chopped, kiln-dried hardwood for £73/ton

My folks will do that in 5 weeks, if not less – along with a load of coal…

I guess I burn that in 6 weeks. Wouldn’t gas central heating be cheaper and less hassle?

Wouldn’t gas central heating be cheaper and less hassle?

We already have GCH and we’re paying £180/month at the moment. That’s balanced out between very little heating in the summer and aiming for 20°C in the winter, so even if we’re getting through a ton of wood every month we’re at least £100 better off.

For info, we’ve ended up going with a chap my wife was recommended. He’s done a good job so far, and has also ended up quoting a very reasonable price for re-tiling our roofs and rebuilding the three chimney stacks. This is where we’re at:

Previous lintel was only supported on the left side, just the proximity to adjacent stonework was keeping it up on the right 😯
Between that and the chimney being in a horrendous state of repair, I’m so glad I didn’t carry on with this on my own.

Unfortunately because of the way the fireplace was split in two when the cowshed next door was converted into living space (there’s another fireplace on the other side of the wall apparently) we can’t make the opening any wider, but it’ll still be nice when done.

He’s coming back to finish tomorrow. I can’t wait. What’s best for burning and smell? Oak, Ash, Birch?

so even if we’re getting through a ton of wood every month we’re at least £100 better off.

A month or a year?

A month, I’m guessing. £180/month for central heating, and as I said it’s averaged out over the year. We don’t have the radiators on from April/May through to end of September, so we’re probably closer to £300/month during the winter. I’d guess that ~£30 of that is hot water, so still £150(£270)/month on gas heating.

What’s best for burning and smell?

smell? shouldn’t ever get smell with a stove unless its busy poisoning you with fumes.

as for what burns best, anything dry.

We already have GCH and we’re paying £180/month at the moment.

Are you heating a stately home? Try switching off the radiators in the 30 bedrooms in the west wing.